Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-09
NUTMEG BURGLARS ]!
TO MEN WHO HAVE BEEN WORK
 INGu CONNECTICUT TOWNS.
How They Managed to Furnish the Market With the Best Poultry Their Neighbors Afforded-Household Good Enough to Start in Business.

Start fin Business.
 NORWICH, Conn, Dec. 9-An astounding series of thefts and burglaries, extending over several years, which included the pill laging of seashore summer cottages of farm houses and poultry roosts, has just been exposed in Groton by the arrest of two thrifty and reputable farmers, Peter Blifford and John Gerard, of that town. Since the depredations of Messrs lift and Cheesebro, "modep' young church members of Mystic, who made burglary their nocturnal voca- tion from 1877 to 1880, the exploits of Blif- ford and Gerard have been unrivaled in Con- necticut, perhaps in New England. There are strong points of resemblance between the earlier and later crimes
 A year or two ago some remarkable burg laries were perpetrated ill the elegant cot tages at the seashore summer settlement of Harbor View, opposite the Pequot colony on New London harbor. The thieves went into the house with a facility that partly justified the popular suspicion that they knew a magic word at whose utterance doubly locked doors and windows flew open Not many weeks afterwards there was a succession of bold burglaries at the Pequot settlement on the New London shore; then followed the rob bery of isolated cottages and several farm houses in the outskirts of New London and dlOLS Ou0 oOuuu oAOl0 GO Cuo WSSUWdEu
 The pillaging of farmhouses and seashore cottages was the salient incident in the record of robbery covering the past two years, while the history was filled in almost weekly with the trivial items of petty thiev- ing. Sheriff Hawkins, who had gained high distinction as a detective in two counties, was dumbfounded as we'll nonplussed. None of his shrewd devices for ferreting out crime was of any avail, and until week ago there was not suspicion against the real criminals. Finally the elegant summer cot tage of Gen. William A. Aiken, of this city, at Harbor View, was broked into and robbed e second time, and great stir was made about it; but after week or two of persist ent police activity the uproar quieted with no one being any wiser about the robbers.
 At this time surprising incident was noted in the local press, and it served to di- rect public attention in great degree frou the burglaries. A ghost appeared at about midnight on several evenings on the Harbor road. Several belated women saw the spec ter, which was sheeted, and it kinked it's bony arm threateningly at them, and they fled. It always appeared ill the neighbor- hood of houses that had been robbed, and it is now suspected that the sheet, or table cloth, which the ghost wore was the only part of the booty taken which it was good pOllCy to eAulDlU CO u COUaI stranger.
 Contemporaneous with it's disappearance the Groton farmers began to lose their poul- try at night. While the chicken thieving was going on the thrifty farmers-Messrs. Blif- ford and Gerard-took the finest poultry of the county almost daily to the New London market men, who paid them fine prices for it. Since last summer Blifford and Gerard have sold at least a third of all the poultry raised by the Groton farmers, and having a reputation with the dealers, they got better prices for it than the owners could have done
 Finally, they went to work extensively On the hen roosts attached to the rows of white walled houses that terrace the steep slopes of Groton Bank, and they got away with all the best fowls in that village Next the thieves went for the towns poor faTm and they found the pickngs so good there and the isolated surroundings so favorable for nocturnal operations that they kept going there. But the temerity inspired by their own ski,fulness and long immunity from detection, coupled with lessening of their masterly caution, which an unpro- tected and guileles poorhouse invited, was the cause of their self betrayal
 Their final and fatal visit to the poorhouse hen roost was paid at a late hour one night just preceding Thanksgiving, and the pur- pose OI UIlo 0IIduu was LO 2oG q Slngl0 gOD- bler-the biggest and fattest turkey in the town of Groton. The fame of the bird had gone abroad; he was reputed to weigh not less than twenty-eight or thirty pounds. The final chore that the keeper executed each night was to run down to the poultry perch to see whether the big bird was still there, and his first mission from the house in the morning was a trip to assure himself that nobody had got away with the big gobbler over night. Blfford and Gerar1 had made two carefully planned trips to the roost to capture the bird.
 It was vainy night, and the roads were plastic, and as Blfford and Gerard trailed off down the highway, their boots sunk deeply into the mre, while the bag bobbed along after them, now and then tapping the roadbed. The next morning, when the aims house keeper discovered his loss he was speeches. at first with wrath, and then his glance fell on the footprints in his yard. He followed the racks to the road, and there the marks were even more distinct and easy to follow. The footprints led him uaerringly, and half an hour later he walked into the yards of Blifford and Gerard.s Before noon of the next day Sheriffs Hawkins and Car roll, of New London, had the thieves under arrest.
 Not even then were the officers aware of the big criminal prize they nad In Bllford and Gerard It was not until the sheriffs, acting by virture of their search warrants, with which they had provided themselves before quitting New London, entered the houses of the thieves that the truth ap- peared to them in the accusing evidences on every side of indiscriminate and long con- tinued robbery. Both dwellings was packed as full of plunder as was the famous cave of the s'Forty Thieves" There were crimina- ting articles from nearly every house in two or three towns, into which burglars had pen etrated within the past two or three years but the goods that have been identified and recovered are only fraction of the booty that Blifford and Gerard accumulated.
 Immediately after the search of their homes Blifford and Gerard were rearrested on the charge of burglary, and as they were unable to procure bonds they are in the New London jail, awaiting trial at the next ses sion of the superior court. It is apparent already that there will be not less thar twenty counts i9 the indictment for bur glary against them.
 Resignation of 8 State Official.
 COLUMBIA, s. C., Dec. 9.-Hon. Wm. B Stoney, comptroller general of the state o South Carolina, to-day rendered his resigna tion tO the governor to take effect as soon a.